Head Hunters, Dragon Rapids and Tupperware!!
The great Rejang River is a mighty river, pitted with whirlpools, rock outcrops and drift wood; our speed boat was in for some surprises. Luckily our boatsman was the Schumacher of this watery F1 circuit.

..The jungle clad river banks are daunting. The bearded trees loom over the river curious to see whose moving upriver towards the Dragon Rapids of Nabau. Interesting tale these rapids have. Legends speak of a giant serpent like creature that was diced up by the locals in the ancient times and its limbs came to rest in the river to form the rapids. The place is one big story land with every rock outcrop, every mountain, every trail, brought to life by a story, a legend behind it.told wonderfully by the tribes people who I call the Storylanders.

Told by
Graham Canning from Liverpool

.I found out the human head hunting stopped years ago under British rule. But the tribe's people were proud of their ancestors' head chopping antics. The heads were used back in the good old days as spiritual offerings. Every one in the Long House, the Iban's humble abode, would cut some hair and place it in the skull. Then the offering is made to the river to appease its wrath. When they couldn't use human heads, they moved on to pig's head. But they had to stop using that too. "what do they use now?" I asked.

"We have to move with the times." explained the Iban tribesman rummaging in a box, "we still practice the spiritual offering of our forefathers, the Head Hunters..But we use tupperware now. It's as good as head." The Iban man handed me over a bright blue Tupperware bowl.

"The great thing is." said the tribesman to my amusement. "unlike the skulls which used to sink to the bottom, we can retrieve the bowl further down the river".

Told by
Annie Needham from Herne Hill

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